A/B Test: Which LeadBox™ Message Increased Opt-Ins by 69.71%?

A tall, green glass of pureed vegetables isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. If pressed, few people would name a spinach smoothie as their favorite thing to drink. And yet green juices have become wildly popular within the last few years.

How’d that happen? Savvy health-food marketers overcame the rather high barrier to entry by sweetening the deal—both literally, by adding fruit juices, and figuratively, by highlighting the health benefits of all those nutrients.

Digital marketers using pop-up windows can also face some ingrained resistance from their audience. Almost every web user has gotten frustrated by an ill-timed pop-up at some point. And yet the tactic continues to be effective. The trick, as with juicing, is to find ways to turn any lingering bitterness into delight.

In this A/B test, Ryan Cruz of JuicingDietWorks.com and TrafficSalad.org decided to find out which message better sweetened the offer he made in an exit LeadBox™ that popped up as visitors were about to leave the page.

One LeadBox™ straightforwardly prompted visitors to enter their email address to download free smoothie recipes, whereas the other took a more dramatic approach: “WAIT! Before you go to Amazon…”

Which version do you think increased opt-ins for this LeadBox™ by 69.71%?

Go down to the comments and tell us which one you’d choose and why—then vote below to see if you were right!

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Version B, with a 99% probability of outperforming Version A, increased opt-ins by 69.71%.

Although we can’t say with total certainty why this change caused the increase, here are a few of my speculations:

1. Adding “WAIT!” to the headline in Version B created a sense of urgency, prompting more visitors to take action.

2. By mentioning a common follow-up action (checking Amazon for recipe books), Version B may have captured more attention.

If you read Friday’s post on a very similar A/B test from BeMo Academic Consulting, you may be surprised by these results: in that case, adding “WAIT! BEFORE YOU GO!” to an exit LeadBox™ diminished the conversion rate. That might be because the audiences for juicing information and for academic consulting respond differently to urgency-focused messaging. Or the conversion rate changes may have been unrelated to the addition of “WAIT!”—perhaps visitors were more influenced by the minor changes in content. Only one way to know: additional, more precise A/B testing.

Why do you think Version B outperformed Version A? Let us know in the comments!

Not all visitors are the same, but A/B testing headlines may be something to consider for your own LeadBoxes®.

Did this test’s results surprise you? Why do you think Version B increased conversions so dramatically? Leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.

If you’re new to LeadPages, you should know that all Pro and Advanced users can run any A/B test inside LeadPages in just five clicks.

Do you have a LeadBox™ like this one that you would like to test? If so, you can set up the exact same type of test in under a minute. You can also A/B test your images, calls-to-action, body copy, and just about any other change you can think of.

Watch the quick video below for an introduction to enabling split testing on your LeadPages account.

Yes. The winning copy is shorter and has ‘absolutely free’…a couple of pluses. Maybe a good test of the urgency idea would use identical copy for both, with ‘WAIT’ or ‘BEFORE YOU GO’ at the beginning of one?

Daphne Sidor

Great idea—I’d love to see a test like that.

Jonathan

Daphne, is it safe to assume LeadPages is happy with Disqus for managing conversations? Happy to pick this up by email, and grateful for any input.

Daphne Sidor

Yes, it seems to work well for us! Easy and intuitive, and of course it’s a major draw that it’s used across so many different sites; one less login for people to remember.